Where now as in a glass I see, There face to face I shall. Oh! blessed are the pure in heart- Yet search me, Lord, and find me out' O mother dear! Jerusalem! When shall I come to thee? Yet once again I pray Thee, Lord, And dwell there all my life- And holy souls of men, To sing Thy praise, O God of hosts! AUTHOR UNKNOWN. THE CELESTIAL COUNTRY. THE world is very evil; The times are waxing late: Be sober and keep vigil; The Judge is at the gate: The Judge that comes in mercy, The Judge that comes with might To terminate the evil, To diadem the right. When the just and gentle Monarch Shall summon from the tomb, Let man, the guilty, tremble, For Man, the God, shall doom. Arise, arise, good Christian! Let right to wrong succeed; Let penitential sorrow To heavenly gladness lead; To the light that hath no evening, That knows nor moon nor sun, The light so new and golden, The light that is but one. And when the Sole-Begotten Shall render up once more The kingdom to the Father Whose own it was before,Then glory yet unheard of Shall shed abroad its ray, Resolving all enigmas, An endless Sabbath-day. Then, then from his oppressors The Hebrew shall go free, And celebrate in triumph The year of Jubilee; And the sunlit land that recks not Of tempest nor of fight, Of flowers that fear no thorn, Where they shall dwell as children, Who here as exiles mourn. Midst power that knows no limit, Shall glad the saints around: Divinest, sweetest, best. Yes, calm! for storm is past,— And anchorage at last. That peace-but who may claim it? The guileless in their way, Who keep the ranks of battle, Who mean the thing they say: The peace that is for heaven, And shall be for the earth: With festal song and mirth; There none can ever mourn, 'Tis peaceless peace below; Peace, endless, strifeless, ageless, The halls of Sion know: O happy, holy portion, Refection for the blest; Till hope be lost in sight: The full, yet craving still. That fulness and that craving Alike are free from pain, Where thou, midst heavenly citizens, A home like theirs shalt gain. Here is the warlike trumpet; There, life set free from sin; When to the last Great Supper The faithful shall come in: When the heavenly net is laden With fishes many and great; So glorious in its fulness, Yet so inviolate: And the perfect from the shatter'd, And these shall pass to torment, And those shall triumph, then ; The new peculiar nation, Blest number of blest men. Jerusalem demands them: They paid the price on earth, Who evermore relied Now bright with endless sheen, Where soul-like odors play, Draw out the endless leisure Of that long vernal day: And through the sacred lilies, And flowers on every side, The happy dear-bought people Go wandering far and wide. Their breasts are filled with gladness, Their mouths are tuned to praise, What time, now safe for ever, On former sins they gaze: The fulness of His love, Instead of death, that life Brief life is here our portion, care, Brief sorrow, short-lived The tearless life, is there. O happy retribution! Short toil, eternal rest, For mortals and for sinners A mansion with the blest! That we should look, poor wand'rers, To have our home on high! That worms should seek for dwellings Beyond the starry sky! To all one happy guerdon Of one celestial grace; For all, for all, who mourn their fall, Upon that heavenly ground, For virgin-souls abound. Such pleasure as below No human heart can know; And after this world's night, And passionless renown; And Sion, in her anguish, With Babylon must cope; But He whom now we trust in Shall then be seen and known, And they that know and see Him Shall have Him for their own. The miserable pleasures Of the body shall decay; And none shall there be jealous. And life in fullest glow, There Jesus shall embrace us, A place, however low, But there by Living Bread. The morn is bright with gladness: The Cross becomes our harbor, And we triumph after sadness, And Jesus to His true ones Brings trophies fair to see, Beheld, when morn shall waken, Shall shine as doth the day; Behold thy King's array, Behold thy God in beauty, The Law hath past away! Dear fountain of refreshment We then shall see for ever, And worship face to face. Then Jacob into Israel, From earthlier self estranged, And Leah into Rachel, For ever shall be changed: Then all the halls of Sion For aye shall be complete, And, in the Land of Beauty, All things of beauty meet. For thee, oh dear dear Country! Is unction to the breast, O Paradise of Joy! All plants are, great and small, The hyssop of the wall: Unite in thee their rays: Thy ransom'd people raise: True God and Man, they sing: The never-failing Garden, The ever-golden Ring: The Door, the Pledge, the Husband, The Guardian of his Court: The Day-star of Salvation, The Porter and the Port. Thou hast no shore, fair ocean! Thou hast no time, bright day! To pilgrims far away! Upon the Rock of Ages They raise thy holy tower: Thine is the victor's laurel, And thine the golden dower: Thou feel'st in mystic rapture, O Bride that know'st no guile, The Prince's sweetest kisses, The Prince's loveliest smile; Unfading lilies, bracelets Of living pearl thine own; The Bridegroom thine alone; The Life where Death is not: In sweetest accents sings, The ill that was thy merit,The wealth that is thy King's! Jerusalem the golden, With milk and honey blest, Beneath thy contemplation Sink heart and voice oppress'd: I know not, oh I know not, What social joys are there; What radiancy of glory, What light beyond compare! And when I fain would sing them, My spirit fails and faints; And vainly would it image The assembly of the Saints. They stand, those halls of Sion, Conjubilant with song, And bright with many an angel, And all the martyr throng: The Prince is ever in them; The daylight is serene; The pastures of the Blessed Are deck'd in glorious sheen. There is the Throne of David, And there, from care released, The song of them that triumph, The shout of them that feast; And they who, with their Leader, Have conquer'd in the fight, For ever and for ever Are clad in robes of white! O holy, placid harp-notes Yet evermore content! Of God cunetipotent! That divers merits claim: That deck our earthly sky, This star than that is brighter,And so it is on high. Jerusalem the glorious! The glory of the Elect! O dear and future vision That eager hearts expect: Even now by faith I see thee: Even here thy walls discern : To thee my thoughts are kindled, And strive and pant and yearn : Jerusalem the onely, That look'st from heaven below, In thee is all my glory; In me is all my woe: To earth and flesh again. How gloriously they rise: Thy loveliness oppresses All human thought and heart: And none, O Peace, O Sion, Can sing thee as thou art. New mansion of new people, Whom God's own love and light Promote, increase, make holy, Identify, unite. Thou City of the Angels! Thou City of the Lord! Whose everlasting music Is the glorious decachord ! Of Israel's ransom'd tribes: He, Lamb Immaculate. O fields that know no sorrow! Jerusalem, exulting On that securest shore, I hope thee, wish thee, sing thee, Who made me, and who saved, Bore with me in defilement, And from defilement laved; When in His strength I struggle, For very joy I leap, When in my sin I totter, I weep, or try to weep; And grace, sweet grace celestial, Shall all its love display, And David's royal Fountain Purge every sin away. O mine, my golden Sion! |